“Robertson's lines have the luminosity of myth,” according to the British daily the Guardian. “His is writing of extraordinary visionary power, its music bleak and beautiful, spare and unsparing. If there were justice in the world, it would win every prize going.”

Robertson recently became the first poet to win Britain's Forward Prize in all three categories: best first collection (“A Painted Field,” 1997), best collection (“Swithering,” 2006), and best single poem (“At Roane, Head,” 2008).

“He is great!” says San Antonio poet Naomi Shihab Nye. “It's truly exciting that he's going to be in Texas.”